“Aviation Champions” provides an insider’s look at the leaders and innovators driving the future of flight. From commercial airlines and private aviation to aerospace engineering, airports, and beyond, each episode features engaging conversations that reveal how these professionals stay ahead of evolving trends, navigate challenges, and elevate the standards of the aviation world. In today’s episode, our host, Miranda Gahn, speaks with KitDarby.com Aviation Consulting.
Kit Darby
Owner of KitDarby.com Aviation Consulting, LLC
Website Address: https://kitdarby.com/wp/
Transcript:
Miranda:
Hi. Welcome to another episode of Aviation Champions. I’m Miranda Gahn with Lux Aero Aviation Law Firm. This morning I’m here with Mr. Kit Darby. Good morning, Kit.
Kit:
Good morning.
Miranda:
Kit, why don’t you go ahead and tell us a little bit about your company and what it is you do in aviation?
Kit:
Well, my company sort of has two sides. For many years, over 30 years, we’ve worked with pilots. That’s been simplified a little bit. We do resumes, application reviews, interview preparation, and a lot of career counseling for pilots that have issues, you know, accidents, incidents, violations, training failures, that type of thing.
And then years ago, a friend of mine who I was an active pilot, retired now, and a friend of mine fell in the tub and hurt himself, lost his sense of balance, lost his medical and lost his license. And he asked me to help him determine the value of his loss. And they were offering a very small amount, so we calculated it on a spreadsheet. Actually a ledger. My bookkeeper did it. Later on, we moved into Lotus one, two, three and Excel. And today we model in Excel and write reports in Word.
And we’ve done probably 350, 400 cases now primarily working with pilots that are injured, killed, delayed, establishing their career value. We also work with flight attendants and mechanics. And that’s my main business. And I still work with pilots on the side. But my main business now is determining career value, pay, benefits and retirement for, well, mostly pilots.
And of course, the airline industry has delivered a beautiful raise for them due to the pilot shortage. It was always a good job, and they just got about a 30% raise. And we’re seeing 30 year career values in the $17 million range in today’s dollars. So it’s quite a lucrative career. And if you have a delay or a loss or a fatality, it’s a substantial amount.
I’m actually working on the Potomac crash right now with that copilot, and that’s going to exceed 20 million. I did all the Max crashes working with the pilots that flew the Boeing Max’s and Ethiopian and Malaysia.
Miranda:
Well, that’s really fascinating. So would you say that a lot of your clientele are attorneys looking to value, you know, pilots’ compensation? Or would you say a lot of your clients are actually pilots looking for help with valuation? That sounds like you spend a lot of time in that expert industry.
Kit:
Well, I do work mostly with attorneys, although I am contacted occasionally and do work directly with some pilots. We always prefer to work with attorneys to keep that attorney-client privilege and a rationale. And what we do, they’re going to be the ones that use my information.
So even though I’m working for the pilot, if the attorney doesn’t appreciate what I’ve done or want to use what I’ve done, then it’s a waste of time and money for everybody. So we really want to work primarily with the attorney.
And in some cases, large firms have individuals that seek out experts in certain areas, and my area is very tight. So I do occasionally get contacted by people that specialize in locating the proper expert for a particular case. I work not just the airlines, but I also build professional pilot career values for corporate, fractional operators and military pilots.
Miranda:
Wow. That’s really fascinating. So it sounds like a really complex business that you’re in. It sounds like exacting numbers, a lot of technology, a lot of estimation. Tell us about the type of tools that you might use in helping out your clients.
Kit:
Well, I don’t mean to belittle myself, but this actually is not rocket science. It’s complicated because of the volume of information, but the math involved is very straightforward. A pilot has an hourly rate. They work a certain number of hours per month. That determines their income. They have, in most cases, a union contract, almost entirely unionized.
And that contract spells out their benefits and retirement, all of which are a formula applied to the basic earnings. So where it’s relatively simple in concept, you end up with 30 years of calculations for 13 major airlines, or I normally average seven regional airlines. Or look at the specific branch, you know, Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, corporations that have employment contracts and surveys like the National Business Aircraft Association.
So again, it’s complex in that it’s a lot of data. But the actual calculations are relatively straightforward.
Miranda:
And so doing work for attorneys in cases where you provide evaluations, do you often testify? Is that something that you often do for your clients?
Kit:
Well, certainly in testifying, being depositions, almost every case includes a deposition. Many people are not familiar with the value of pilot careers, especially after 20 years of regional airline pilot pay that was so low you could qualify for food stamps.
They’ve recently gotten a huge raise, a 500% increase in starting pay and a doubling of maximum pay. So we have a lot of people that just aren’t aware that these careers are valuable. And I use these contracts primarily, which are a little hard to get hold of, but I have the contracts of all the companies that I’ve worked on. And those contracts spell out the values and make this work relatively straightforward.
I’m not an economist, however, and should not be used as one. So we often have an economist work on my numbers afterwards to establish present value. And the unique part of present value for pilots is their pay has actually been increasing faster than inflation for 15 or 18 years now. And that allows you to keep the full value that I come up with, because it will be worth at least as much as I say, if not more.
Miranda:
Wow. Well, that sounds like really important work that you’re doing. Would you say that you’re pretty busy?
Kit:
Well, I have been busy. I would like to say I’m sort of retired, so I’m as busy as I want to be, that’s for sure. I also teach on the side, ATP CTP course. And the busy part, you know, I don’t work every case. I do work mostly for pilots. I do work against pilots when they make an unreasonable claim.
I occasionally do a divorce or two, which are not my favorite work, mostly because there’s often unrealistic expectations on both sides. But the calculations I do would be the same.
So busy enough. I do have enough time to typically get a case. I ask for about two weeks to do the calculations. I can do it much faster if necessary. I like to gather the information I need on worksheets, and I like to interview not only the client if they’re available, but also key people in their life — spouse, parents, managers — to substantiate their claims.
Miranda:
Well, what’s something that someone who is not in the industry or just somewhat familiar with pilot compensation — what’s something that you think your audience might not be aware of or something that’s kind of fascinating about what you do?
Kit:
Well, it would probably come back to that point I made about the low pay in the beginning. It was pervasive in the media that regional airline pilots did not make a living wage. And it was true. But it’s only been a few years now that, like I said, that raise has been incredible.
It wasn’t but a few years ago that they made $20,000 a year to start, and now they start at $100,000. The maximum pay for a regional pilot used to be $125,000 or so, and now it’s $250,000.
And they always knew that major airline pilots had a good living, but they didn’t realize that a regional career can be a $10 or $12 million career as well. So that’s the big surprise — not only do the major airlines offer excellent career values, but the smaller airlines do also.
Miranda:
So I would say keeping up with that type of information as it’s always changing is probably pretty challenging. What is it that you do, or some tips and tricks that you use, to stay current on pilot compensation?
Kit:
Well, having that contract is the key to the whole thing. So through my experience in the industry for 40 years now, pilots are given a copy of the contract or access to the contract. So I keep a file of current contracts. I update on January 1st of each year.
In fact, I have some of that information that has been very popular on the internet. I’m approaching a million views. And I have one or two charts that have done 700,000 on their own.
Miranda:
So tell me, what is it that you’re focused on this year — your goals and objectives for your company? Anything new that you’re working on for the upcoming year?
Kit:
Well, it’s very difficult to market my company because the need for it is extremely narrow. Aviation is wonderfully safe. There are relatively few accidents or incidents, so the need for my service is very, very narrow.
So I’ve worked on social media. I put a lot of information out on LinkedIn, Facebook, X or Twitter. I have to assume that when I contact an attorney, they’re not going to need me that day. Maybe not even that year.
So what I’m trying to do is build an awareness of my services so that when they get a pilot, or an aviation flight attendant or mechanic case, they have somebody they can rely on to get proper career values in a timely manner.
Miranda:
Well, that’s a great segue into my next question. Tell us the name of your firm and where people can get in touch with you.
Kit:
So it’s my name, Kit Darby Aviation Consulting. I have a website, darby.com, and I have both pilot services and expert witness services on that website, depending on which side you’re approaching this from.
Miranda:
Well, Kit, what a fascinating topic and so valuable, I think, for those pilots in the industry who really need your evaluation services. I really hope to work together with you in the future. We really appreciate your time today.
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